West Virginia backup QB Nicco Marchiol displays cool nerves in Backyard Brawl victory

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — About midway through the first quarter of the Backyard Brawl, West Virginia coach Neal Brown suddenly was working with a highly condensed playbook.

His starting quarterback, Garrett Greene, had left the game with an apparent leg injury, and in Greene’s place entered Nicco Marchiol, a redshirt freshman with limited collegiate experience.

Greene eventually reemerged on the sidelines but in street clothes. It would be Marchiol under center from there.

Behind 164 combined rushing yards gained by tailbacks CJ Donaldson and Jaylen Anderson — in addition to three interceptions of Pitt quarterback Phil Jurkovec — the Mountaineers (2-1) pulled off a 17-6 victory over the Panthers.

Marchiol wound up playing a limited role, completing 6 of 9 passing attempts for 60 yards and a second-quarter touchdown, which came moments after what appeared to be a costly lost fumble in the red zone.

“He managed the game well,” Brown said. “We didn’t ask him to do a ton. … For not getting a whole bunch of reps during the week, I thought he managed and handled it pretty well.”

Brown and the Mountaineers didn’t need a gunslinger behind center as Saturday’s game went on.

On the contrary, West Virginia required a steady hand to helm the ship, and in that regard, the left-handed Marchiol proved capable.

“A lot of times, people don’t win football games. A lot of times, what happens is people lose them,” Brown said. “What (Marchiol) didn’t do … he had a fumble, but he came back and he didn’t lose the game.”

In the second quarter, the Mountaineers trailed 3-0 but began marching downfield, thanks, in part, to completions of 13 and 15 yards by Marchiol, setting West Virginia up at the Pitt 14-yard line.

Then, disaster struck, as Marchiol fumbled the ball on a handoff attempt, with Pitt’s Bam Brima recovering.

However, only 14 seconds later, Jurkovec was picked off by Aubrey Burks, who returned the ball back to Pitt’s 7-yard line.

Marchiol and the WVU offense returned to the field, and on the first play, Marchiol hit tight end Kole Taylor for a touchdown pass.

“Being a young quarterback, one of the things you really want to do is get early completions to gain some confidence, get a little momentum,” Marchiol said. “It’s hard to miss a 6-foot-7 tight end, so I put it in his vicinity, and he goes and makes a play. Very, very grateful to have him on the offense.”

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Marchiol mostly leaned on feeding the ball to Donaldson and Anderson, who were the primary movers of the chains for WVU throughout the evening.

West Virginia rushed the ball 51 times for a total of 151 yards, and Greene and Marchiol threw a total of only 11 passes, six of which were completions, all by Marchiol.

“You got a guy like CJ Donaldson in the backfield, and Jaylen Anderson, just give them the ball and go let them be special,” Marchiol said. “They were one of the key factors for this one today, absolutely.”

The Mountaineers took control of the game in the third quarter, holding Pitt (1-2) scoreless while adding 10 points.

Marchiol had a 10-yard completion to receiver Hudson Clement that set up an eventual 1-yard touchdown run by Donaldson.

Brown had no update to provide on Greene’s status Saturday night, but said he would have new information to share at his weekly news conference Monday.

With the Mountaineers hosting Texas Tech to begin Big 12 play Sept. 23, questions linger as to who will start at quarterback.

After his performance against Pitt, Marchiol gave his coach some confidence that he can answer the call if necessary.

“If he’s the guy next Saturday, if that’s the way it plays out, he’ll, obviously, have the whole week’s practice, and the expectation is that he’ll play much improved,” Brown said. “I believe he will.”